News, politics, insights, inside information from the left

Main Menu

Exclusive: Williamson responds to JLM ‘whip’ letter

Labour MP Chris Williamson has spoken out about the letter from the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) demanding the withdrawal of the Labour whip from the Derby North MP, citing comments made by someone else at an event at which Williamson was speaking.

Williamson interrupted a journey to Wakefield, where he will be giving a talk on Universal Basic Income, to tell the SKWAWKBOX:

I am astonished that at a time when the far-right is on the rise, veteran anti-racists like me are being targeted by the JLM for alleged comments made by another person.

But I will not be bullied by the JLM or anyone else for that matter and will continue standing up to injustice whenever and wherever I see it.

The JLM’s move triggered criticism from Labour members and observers, along with comments of support for Williamson.

The JLM letter also attacks Williamson for comments alleged by a newspaper that some Labour members have been unjustly accused of antisemitism, makes the claim that Williamson believes there is no antisemitism at all among Labour members and criticises his lack of ‘contrition’.

The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.

If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.

22 responses to “Exclusive: Williamson responds to JLM ‘whip’ letter”

Although nobody likes to say it, the Jewish Community is doing itself a lot of damage. OK Jewish people like it and so do the Tories. But you wonder if they’ve thought through the long term implications? Why would non Jewish members of the Labour Party seek their own destruction?! Imagine a Muslim party within Labour seeking the safety and advantage of Pakistan rather than caring for British people!

‘Pembury12’, we have to remember that it is the Zionist, branch of the Jewish community, including Zionists who are not Jews, which is causing the problems. They are just as much criticised by the non-Zionist branch as by the rest of us. We must be careful to note that it is antisemitic if blame is appropriated to all Jews and we cannot tolerate antisemitism.

Some members of the Jewish community are truly hateful and lack any compassion for their fellow human beings. Some people seem to spend their lives hating others. And then we have some Christian people, like Theresa May and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who completely seem to lack any good news for anyone. There are some awful people around.

It’s surpring how often those with religious ‘beliefs’ seek to justify their misdeeds by invoking their various interpretations of whichever sky-fairy they have chosen to believe in and then they expect us all to pander to their delutions and make them immune from being challenged

They’re hilarious aren’t they?
Some actually behave as if the ability to recite verses from their books of fairy stories qualifies them as intellectuals.
I was too bored to do the work to determine whether it was the early inculcation of mind-numbing nonsense that stole the facility for logical thought from the other Sunday school kids or whether they were just born gullible 🙂

Now forgive me, but I always thought people don’t applaud, but indeed boo & heckle when the stage is taken by someone they disagree with.

Therefore, jlm are calling everyone who applauded ‘antisemitic’ also. NO IF’S, NO BUTS. The jlm may as well have called the event ‘A Nuremburg Rally’ F total FS. No wonder Jesus wept…WTF will the charge be next?

‘Went to play on his/her bike as a child instead of staying in to watch bernie winters & schnorbitz, m’lud….Overt antisemitism’

I fear you cannot build a bridge if there is only land on one side. Many influential figures in the Jewish community seem hell bent on confrontation and will not rest until there is a change of leader in the Labour Party.As a consequence does it make continual acts of appeasement worthwhile.? .Accept the party has a problem with AS and other forms of racism.as there is in society as a whole,address these problems when they become apparent but let’s move on and fight the real enemy the Tories and their austerity programme. If some Labour MPs insist on pursuing a single issue to the detriment of the greater good they must go,either voluntarily or by deselection.

Agree with you, Jim. Also reflect on whose job they are actually doing? To me it appears like persecution of people who are making a point for all that is decent, and who do not agree with them. Seems like ‘if you are not unconditionally for me, then you are against me and I make you regret it’.
We need to be alert to the risks of this and act as one.
Good on you Chris Williamson!

Well said Chris, this is exactly the right way to treat bullies, stand up to them and do not appease – a lesson some others should learn.

I was the ‘other person’ at the meeting and Chris was not responsible, nor did he have any control over what I said. I do not retract, or resile from one word I said. The article in the Jewish Chronicle was notable, not for what it said but for what left out. A young Jewish member was widely applauded when he said he was concerned about Corbyn’s enemies ‘weaponising antisemitism’.

When one of the panel said the eyes of the world are upon us, eager to follow Corbyn’s progress, I agreed and said that JEWISH ISRAELI writer and peace activist Miko Peled said that Jeremy Corbyn is a “gift to the British people” and should be supported whole heartedly, but that too was left out of the article.

All over the world, there is a conflict in the Jewish community between Jews who deplore Zionism and its intention to eject every last Palestinian from Palestine and those who want to protect their mission to colonise the Holy Land, even to the extent of slaughtering Palestinians who just want to return to their rightful homes.

Because of the overwhelming influence Zionists enjoy, it is very difficult for Jews who care and have always cared about free speech, human rights and peaceful coexistence with others, no matter where they live, to be heard. Many of the greatest advocates for universal human rights are Jews, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Illan Pappe and many others but because they do not subscribe to Zionism they are vilified and even called ‘antisemitic’, how crazy is that?

Much of the public is ignorant of the schism in Judaism and when they hear and see the atrocities committed by Israel some of them stupidly turn on anyone they believe to be Jewish. Zionism begets antisemitism.

The battle we have on our hands now is to win back control of the Labour Party from those on the right which includes the LFI and the JLM who have had their own way for so long, they think it’s their natural right to control us and what will do that?

Thanks Paul. The arrogance of the LFI and JLM, as David McNiven above implies, is staggering. By trying to intimidate the Labour Party into accepting the fishing net and discredited IHRA definition of antisemitsm, which many Jewish groups have rejected and spraying around false claims of antisemitism, they are trying to kill Jeremy Corbyn’s chance to become our next PM. They are a serious threat to our democracy.

I wonder who they could be talking about when they say “activists expelled from Labour for antisemitism against jewish MPS”. Also “To be silent in the face of antisemitism is to be complicit” I wonder if that includes Lee Harpin of the Jewish Chronicle who was present in the audience at the Liverpool event.